


Savior

by Jogurtron



Category: Diablo (Video Game), Diablo III
Genre: (Eventual) Explicit Sexual Content, Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama, F/F, Horror, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 06:12:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1971945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jogurtron/pseuds/Jogurtron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A journeying crusader and an upstart wizard cross paths on their investigation of the falling star of New Tristram. A story of prophecy and the adventurers' fates. As one becomes more unraveled, the other becomes more intertwined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Savior

Half a day from the shores of Aranoch, a sailing vessel was crossing the Twin Seas, the parting waters it traversed raising a faint mist as the smooth waves created a tranquil sound to compliment the stillness of the night sky. The crusader Tetram stood alone on the deck, leaning her armored body against the ship's railing as she relaxed, staring out into the dark abyss of the horizon as her breath mixed with the cold sea spray. 

This time, Tetram was sailing in from the east, seeking to refresh her mind after exhausting her latest leads - a stone quarry that had been mysteriously abandoned, and a village whose religious figures had been condoning public lynchings and human sacrifices in the name of a false god. Both lay a few days' travel apart, and unfortunately were quite unrelated. The quarry fruitlessly provided zero clues to the crusade's cause, while the village, now cleansed, wiped yet another stain free from the corruptions of the one true faith. 

Her destination was Lut Gholein. As the shining jewel of the desert, Lut Gholein was the bustling gateway between the Western and Eastern lands, divided by the Twin Seas. Tetram traveled through the area quite often in her life, as the crusade called for her attention all over creation, and new leads there were as abundant and fresh as picking an apple straight from the tree itself. Indeed, the dinful and chaotic nature of the thriving community was always a welcome transition, a way to cleanse the palette of the empty dredge, silence, and solitude that encompassed the large swaths of unsettled land in this vast world, before venturing forth into its embrace once again.

She didn't even need to wait for her arrival in Lut Gholein before a new lead had reached her ears. Sitting down below deck to a dinner of her own personally rationed supplies, she overheard the ship's crew gossiping amongst themselves a couple of tables over. She'd learned of a small cult, based in a couple of the various towns that formed the outskirts of Caldeum, that had been growing in popularity as of late. The crew member that started the rumor recalled his entire tale. He had a distant cousin that had approached him one night and invited him out to a celebration in the next town over. As it was barely a half day's ride out from his own town, he obliged, having been told that other members of his distant family would be in attendance as well.

He had noted how the once lively outpost town had felt muted, both in sound and in the loss of its vibrant color and flavor. Lead by his cousin, they walked through a back alley next to an old, dilapidated building that felt shoddily repurposed, its door replaced with an upright bundle of wooden slats as if it had been broken into in the past.

Inside, a dark procession had taken place. Within was the echoing chanting of tall figures donning long, yellow robes. The sailor had come to realize that they had stumbled upon a cult. The cousin of the sailor, rather than turning away, instead embraced the mantra of the others and joined them before a makeshift altar of building stone, smothered in an assortment of guts and gore. It was here, the sailor said, that his cousin had procured a kris from a particularly imposing cult member wearing the skull of a giant horned beast upon his head, and, declaring he had now joined with his true family, plunged it into his own gut. His body collapsed upon a giant stone bowl positioned atop the altar, draining his bodily contents as a fervored roar of chanting erupted from the cult members in attendance. In a fever pitch, they descended upon the body of the sacrificed, attempting to tear it limb from limb in celebration.

In his horror, the sailor could do nothing amidst the chaos save but flee for his life.

Out of the three other crew members he now recounted his story with, two were simply nodding aimlessly, pretending to be invested in the tale but concentrating more on the bottoms of their heavy steins than anything else. The third seemed to have concentrated on said steins too intensely, having passed out against the back of his chair. At one point, the storyteller took a healthy dose from his own drink, and, taking an extra moment to seize an opportunity, reached across the table and slid the stein of his unconscious friend to his side.

“He was a damned fool,” the sailor finished.

The story having come to its end, Tetram approached the sailor’s table, placing a small handful of coin upon its faded wooden surface.

“Have another drink on me for your lost cousin, friend, and tell me the name of this town you speak of.”

\---

The ship arrived into port as the dawn was breaking over the blue horizon. Tetram prepared herself to travel back across the great sea, despite having only just arrived. Two days dedicated to her “Three R’s” - rest, resupply, and research for her new lead - should be enough, she decided.

Later that morning, the crusader was striking up conversations with the merchants at one of the several bazaars that speckled the city, loading up on non-perishable goods while politely querying about any additional information on these cultists. Expectedly, the word-of-mouth information for this particular lead was near non-existent, or completely speculative and of no real practical use.

As Tetram was thanking a merchant for his time and turning to depart, she heard a small voice coming from behind her.

“Excuse me?” the voice called out, meek and polite but with a hint of urgency.

The crusader turned towards the voice to find it belonged to a young girl, about 15 or 16 years of age, with shoulder length, strawberry blonde hair. The girl was standing to Tetram's side, but surveying the area further, the crusader found what appeared to be an open book on the ground against the building a handful of feet across the way. The girl had a similar book held tight against her chest.

"Yes? Can I help you with something?" Tetram asked, nodding to the girl in acknowledgment. The crusader was always willing to listen and lend a helping hand where needed.

The girl smiled slightly, perhaps in her success of catching the crusader's attention. However, her gaze was downcast, and purposely avoided eye contact with Tetram in a manner that was perhaps more obvious than she intended.

"You're a, uh, crusader... right? Sorry to bother you like this."

Tetram nodded again in response. “That I am. My name is Tetram, and what is your name?” she spoke in a soft, comforting tone. Often when people approached her in this manner they were in distress and in need of assistance. Younger folk in particular were also likely to be intimidated about their situation and could be afraid to speak out for help, lest they be scolded. Tetram did what she could to ease the burden of those seeking aid, having been in a familiar situation prior to meeting her own master for the first time.

The girl took a deep breath, collecting her composure in light of getting the crusader’s attention.

“My name is… Emmie, and I’d like to join you,” she decreed, having since gathered the confidence to make direct eye contact with the crusader.

Youngsters actively hoping to become crusaders were certainly not unheard of, and were a common enough occurrence, considering the rather limited backgrounds that led to becoming one with the faith. Typically, there were two major contributing backgrounds - volunteers, and orphaned refugees searching for a new life. Tetram had been the latter, her master taking her in after she had lost her family to a feud that involved their neighbors. Her family had been unfortunate bystanders - collateral damage from the vicious bloodbath that had occurred when the feud had finally come to a head. 

Her master had taught her in the ways of the crusade - training her in combat and the holy arts. It had given her a new purpose in life, and one that she would uphold with honor and conviction as a faithful apprentice.

When her master had passed on years later, the apprentice then became the crusader in turn. Her legacy would live on, and her journey to restore the integrity of the Zakarum faith was persevered in her master's name. That name was Tetram.

That perseverance, a core tenet of the crusade, had led Tetram to seek out an apprentice of her own. The search, although an essential aspect to her journey, was not necessarily a forceful one. The circumstances of seeking out and taking on an apprentice varied slightly from one crusader to another, but it was rare, if not improbable, for the situation to end up so dire as to reach into the depths of conscription. Indeed, such a strategy would only lead to a lack of due diligence, and the inevitable death of that crusader’s name forevermore. 

Unthinkable extremes aside, there were no hard and fast rules when seeking an apprentice, nor was it a skill that was explicitly taught from one’s own master. Instead, one had their own past to look upon for guidance, drawing upon their own personality traits and beliefs about the world at large from the young age at which they themselves had taken on the grand task ahead of them. For some, it was a matter of circumstance that may see them more receptive to taking on a new life, a new cause.

The crusader nodded to the girl in acknowledgment. At her age, she was older than Tetram herself had been when she had first sworn the oath. Certainly, the girl was old enough to journey. However, Tetram had neither the intentions, nor the desires to take anyone from their families on a whim. If the girl was truly alone in her life as Tetram herself had once been, or if her family approved of the girl's choice knowing full well the consequences of taking on the crusade, only then could preparations for taking the girl under her wing be considered.

“Your determination is admirable. However,” the crusader spoke, addressing the girl as her equal, “I hope you do not mind, but I would ask of you a personal question. Feel free not to answer if it ill suits you.”

The girl remained as vigilant in her expression as she could muster, though her heart appeared to visibly sink but a notch, correctly anticipating the question to come.

The crusader continued, “I have concern about your situation. Forgive my bluntness, for I had noticed you were here along the side of the street reading your books. Is your family still with you?”

Emmie was quick to answer, having expected she’d need to talk about this topic eventually.

“Kinda.” She nodded sadly. “Mother disappeared a couple of years ago and I haven’t seen her since. Father told me that she went off doing heroic deeds as a crusader, but…” she trailed off for a moment, as if unsure how she should continue. After a brief sigh, she continued.

“I liked that mother was a crusader, so I’d read all about it! I have all sorts of books about what it means to be a crusader, or at least, what I could find... and, and, I read about them all the time, even at night, whenever I can. I dreamed that I could one day be a crusader too, just like my mother.”

Emmie paused again for a moment, looking downwards, towards the book she still had clasped against her chest. Her voice began to crack slightly.

“And… and I’ve read enough about crusaders that… I know that um, I know that what father said isn’t really true. It’s really not likely that a grown woman with a husband and child would leave them behind to join the crusade, and I know it’s usually done by apprenticeship now and… and that father just told me something like that to make me feel better.”

Tetram placed a hand on Emmie’s shoulder to comfort her, the slight warmth of her gauntlet in the morning sun appeared to help in reassuring the girl. 

“Even feeling that may be true,” the crusader continued for the girl, “the appeal of the Zakarum faith and the crusader’s journey still intrigue you, no?” 

The girl sniffed softly and nodded in response, keeping her gaze down towards her book.

This seems to be what she truly wishes for, the crusader thought to herself. She may become a fine apprentice, but I wish to see how her father feels before we get too ahead of ourselves.

“It feels as if your father had meant you no harm, that he did what he thought was best to not hurt your strength of heart. Come, gather your things. Let us discuss with him your choice and see what we might do.”


End file.
